Not spring practice. But the type of physical athletes available on campus.

When top-seeded Michigan State faces 4 seed Louisville in West
Regional semifinals Thursday in Phoenix, Izzo expects the Cardinals to
unleash their full-court press.

Just as basketball coaches have used walk-ons with tennis racquets to impersonate 7-footers, Izzo was considering getting creative.

"I really did think about doing it," Izzo said before Monday's practice, the Spartans last workout before leaving for Phoenix Monday night.

Sunday's long travel day — including a two-hour flight delay due to weather in Columbus — after two games in three days nixed the idea of using football players to impersonate Louisville's frantic defense, with Izzo thinking his team needed anything but going head-to-head with defensive backs.

"But I really would have tried to call over and get a couple guys maybe to come over and press us and things like that," continued Izzo, who settled for having football coach Mark Dantonio address the team just before leaving for the airport. "What we normally do, and we don't have that, is go with six or seven guys (to simulate a press). With this year's team we might have to go seven or eight guys. We might have to pick it up a little bit."

Louisville is seventh in the nation in steals, averaging nine per game. Its ability to create turnovers — 16 per contest — and turn them into easy buckets helps make up for a squad that ranks 252nd in college basketball in 3-point shooting (31.3 percent).

"I mean, this is not the greatest shooting Louisville team, so they score a lot of points off their press, off their defense," Izzo said of the Cardinals, which won the Big East tournament during their ongoing six-game winning streak. "I think they'll press us a lot, I really do. I don't think they'll change what they've done. It's kind of a matchup zone. It's a zone/man. We call it 'You pick-em.' That will be the hardest thing for us to adjust to, I think.

View full sizeAP PhotoLouisville's Russ Smith (2) attempts to take the ball from New Mexico's Drew Gordon (32) for a loose ball, while New Mexico's Hugh Greenwood (3) looks on. Louisville, which relies on its pressure defense, defeated New Mexico 59-56.

"It's kind of a completely different zone than most we've ever faced, different than the one there was in '09. Starts out similar, but it changes. Look at their field goal percentage, it's been successful for them."

In 2009 NCAA tournament, Michigan State surprisingly negated Louisville's pressure by attacking it so efficiently early, the Cardinals backed off. It was too late. Michigan State rolled 64-52 into the Final Four.

"Their offense has changed a little bit," Izzo said. "But I think for the most part, you do get to know programs, and I think these guys have had success for a long time. They tweak their systems, but they don't change them all the time.

"Unless we can bring (Goran) Suton back, '09 does very little for us except makes us realize where we can attack some things. But they are playing that zone a little different than they did then."